Performance - Part I
Testing methodology
A monitor review based on descriptive visual analysis will always have the underlying problem of subjectivity; assessments of panel quality will vary from user to user depending on their normative expectations. To get around this we’re deploying Datacolor’s Spyder 4 Elite professional monitor analyser to return a quantitative assessment of display quality.These numerical results, we feel, add extra utility to our reviews allowing us to more accurately benchmark the following display characteristics:
- Colour Gamut relative to sRGB and AdobeRGB industry-standards
- Brightness levels and contrast ratios
- Colour uniformity
- Brightness uniformity
- Colour accuracy
The tests are run under two different scenarios: uncalibrated and calibrated. Uncalibrated performance equates to the ‘out-of-the-box’ settings a monitor ships with; this is the typical end-user experience as very few consumers engage in calibration of their displays before use. Calibrated performance is what results after the monitor has been put through the Spyder4Elite hardware-calibration process with the following parameters: 2.2 Gamma, 6500k colour temperature and 120 nits of brightness. These calibrated results demonstrate what the monitor is capable of when tuned correctly but the results have limited relevance to most consumers who will not calibrate their monitors.
Colour
The colour gamut available to the Acer XG270HU is typical of an average TN panel. The vast majority of sRGB is covered while AdobeRGB falls behind to mid-range levels. There's enough colour coverage for casual photography or videography tasks.
Colour accuracy is consumer-grade with a Delta-E value of 2.5 before calibration and 1.5 after, which are both respectable figures.
The panel has some colour shift along the top and bottom-right when compared to the centre of the screen. It's not overly noticeable but the limited viewing angles of the TN panel can increase perception of it.
